The Story Behind How Captain America: Civil War Sparked A ‘Civil War’ At Marvel
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the release of Captain America: Civil War as, for me, it feels like just yesterday that the superhero crossover film hit cinemas. Even today, Joe and Anthony Russo’s 2016 flick ranks as one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. There are so many reasons to “marvel” at the film, from its adept juggling of the various characters to its spectacular action sequences. One particular wild piece of lore pertaining to the Russos’ film, though, is its contribution to a real “civil war” at Marvel.
Amid the 10th anniversary of Civil War, the Russo brothers participated in a screening and Q&A session moderated by CBR. During the wide-ranging conversation, the brothers were asked about some of the creative compromises that needed to be made while they were developing the movie. Joe Russo explained that the movie’s development represented a case study in how to be “uncompromising.” From there, the Gray Man co-director, recalled the discussions that were had behind the scenes:
That movie was probably a tale of how to be uncompromising, because we got in such a heated fight with Marvel New York, at the time, over the direction of the movie. I mean, that was famously the movie — Civil War started the civil war within Marvel. It was because we were only interested in the third act that led to a conflict between the two main characters, where there was a risk averse approach that was being proposed which was they resolve the Civil War conflict before the third act, and then they go fight a bad guy.
“Marvel New York” is in reference to the company’s creative committee, and that governing body provided notes on the MCU films for years. Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter oversaw the group and, at times, there were clashes between the group and studio president Kevin Feige and co. The discussions regarding Civil War ultimately led to that tension coming to a head. Despite that, Russo explained that he, his brother and the folks at the studio were holding steady to their opinion on how the movie should end:
And we thought, well, we’re dealing with an arc here that spans many, many movies and, if all we do is keep playing the same note over and over again, optimistic ending, expected ending, there’s no shape to the overall arc of the movies.
Captain America: Civil War ends with the Avengers divided as a result of the machinations set in motion by Helmut Zemo, who’s incarcerated by the conclusion of the film. As a fan, I’m personally glad that the Russos and their collaborators stuck to their guns. Because they did so, the film also laid the groundwork for the two MCU event films that would follow it – Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Of course, aside from the third act, a certain spider-themed hero also figured into the creative conflicts, as Anthony Russo recalled:
I think another layer to that as well not only did the idea of Civil War scare parts of Marvel, because we were turning Tony Stark, their most popular character in the MCU, into an antagonist in the film, but also the introducing Spider-Man within this movie was very controversial, because Sony has the rights to that character. So the character can really only appear in the MCU in cooperation with Sony, and there was no — when we conceived it creatively and started to execute it creatively with the writers, Markus and McFeely, there was no business agreement that we could use Spider-Man.
Of course, as history tells us, the Marvel/Sony deal for Spider-Man worked out and, at present, a fourth Spidey film starring Tom Holland is set to hit the 2026 movie schedule. Introducing Peter Parker into the MCU could’ve gone sideways, but it definitely seemed to pay off. Additionally, the Russos deserve credit for taking a number of swings in the film, from getting Robert Downey Jr. to give a more antagonistic performance as Tony Stark to having the main villain be a non-powered man with a vendetta.
As for the corporate side of all this, Marvel Studios was eventually inserted into Walt Disney Studios proper, with Kevin Feige eventually reporting to then-chairman Alan Horn instead of Perlmutter. That move provided Feige and his team with more creative autonomy and set the stage for the projects that would come in the following years.
It’s easy to see why Civil War has had such a serious influence on the MCU, and I’m glad it exists in its current form. Yes, it may have sparked something of a war within Marvel, but I’d say the film’s $1.1 billion worldwide haul and the critical acclaim eventually proved that it was smart for the company to go with the Russos’ instincts.
Captain America: Civil War is now available to stream using a Disney+ subscription. Anyone looking forward to upcoming Marvel movies should know that the Russos are helming Avengers: Doomsday, which opens in theaters on December 18.
